The present invention relates generally to the treatment of snake bites, but may be useful in treating other types of venomous bites and in particular, the need to treat snake bites by both extracting snake venom from a victim's wound, and injecting medication such as antivenin or antibiotics to effectively treat the Patient to help reduce the possibility of death, tissue death, discomfort, infection, or disfigurement.
The prior art contains devices that allow people to extract snake venom from a wounded area. For example, the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,954 includes a lance and telescopically-mounted poison extractor tube in a single unit. The lance includes two blades mounted on a spring member that is released by a trigger arrangement, which allows the lance to cut into a person's flesh at a given length. Once the lance is inserted to open the wounded area, the lance is then removed so that the poison may be extracted. This is accomplished by placing the tube over the wound so that a person can create suction by sucking air through a hole on one side of the tube.
Another example of the representative prior art is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,539,846. The patent discloses a pump with a piston construction connected to a nozzle with a small open tip whereby the tip is placed over the wounded area and the pumping mechanism extracts any snake venom from within the flesh.
In a similar manner, U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,203 discloses a device that uses a syringe-like structure for extracting pus, blood, and other materials from beneath a person's skin. The device uses a plunger that is pulled out through a tube to create a vacuum when the tube is placed securely on top of the person's skin. The vacuum pulls the skin area into the tube so that it can be punctured by a piercing element, thereby allowing the blood, pus, or other materials to be extracted from the skin area and into the tube. U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,217 operates in a similar fashion without the use of a piercing device.
Finally, it is also generally known that a standard hypodermic needle and syringe may be used to pierce and extract the venom directly from the wounded area.
Advantageously, all of these devices enable a snake bite victim to treat the wound by extracting the snake's venom using various forms of simple suction and lancing techniques.